The farepayer contributed £6.2bn over the same period and that total will increase rapidly, with the government committed to annual season ticket increases pegged at the rate of retail price index inflation RPI plus 3% until 2014.

By 2014 the farepayer is expected to account for 75% of industry funding, but franchise owners and Network Rail, the quasi-private owner of the rail system, are braced for an acceleration in that timescale.

If the Government will insist on claiming a definitional difference between a taxpayer and a farepayer when it comes to funding the railways. it suggests - does it not - that fares are to be tax-free which must mean no more VAT right?

Although the Government cut back the annual increase to RPI plus 1% for 2012, the RPI plus 3% figure is still set to apply in January 2013 and January 2014, as the Government moves to put more of the cost of the railways on to the farepayer rather than the taxpayer.

The Atoc study will consult train operators, thinktanks, MPs and the rail user watchdog on issues including the proliferation of ticket types, whether the right fares are subjected to price caps and whether the government has struck the right funding balance between the taxpayer and the farepayer.